A Day Without A Woman K16 Syllabus & Resources

created & compiled by Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Ph.D.

with Alicia Moore, Ph.D.

The world goes dark without the voices and experiences, contributions and sacrifices, laughter and love of womyn.  –Karsonya Wise Whitehead, 2017

International Women’s Day and the “A Day Without A Woman” protest

As we celebrate International Women’s Day and we stand in solidarity with the “A Day Without a Woman” protest, we remember the countless teachers and mothers, educators and caregivers, day workers and hourly wage earners, who are unable to take a day off of work…as there are some jobs (like motherhood) that have no start and end time to its workday. We stand with you and challenge you to take these collective spaces and turn them into spaces of equality and justice, of liberation and freedom, or conversation and activism. We have compiled a list of resources (pulled from the #TrumpSyllabusK12 and #ClintonSyllabus; and submitted by teachers across the country) that focus on and highlight the contributions, lives, and experiences of women and people of color. We encourage you to go forward and teach with love and joy and in a spirit of resistance! We also ask you to forward us your “A Day Without A Woman” lesson plans or activities to add to our list. Let’s see revolution as a thunderstorm and join hands, run out into the room, and get free together.

*We will continue to add resources, so please send your lesson plans and activities to griotonthego@gmail.com!

–In solidarity and sistahood! Amandla (Umfazi)! (power to the woman)

Lesson Plans & Resources

1. Nevertheless They Persisted: Black Women & The Fire Within Them (MS/HS)

   -Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Ph.D.

2. Women’s Empowerment (Learning How to Lift as We Climb) (PK-2nd, 3rd-5th)

   -Nichole Aguirre and Nekia Becerra (edited by Alicia L. Moore, Ph.D)

3. Writing White Privilege, Race, and Citizenship: Reading Angela Davis, Toni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, and Walt Whitman (HS)

   -Ileana Jiménez

4. Giving Voice & Making Space: Dismantling the Education Industrial Complex in an Effort to Free Our Black Girls (MS/HS)

   -Aja Reynolds & Stephanie Hicks

Opinion Editorials & Poetry

1. Making Our Voices Heard (OpEd)

   -Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Ph.D.

2. Nevertheless They Persisted: Black Women & The Fire Within Them (Essay)

   -Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Ph.D.

3. America is a Divided Nation: Singing the Post-Trump Blues (OpEd)

   -Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Ph.D.

4. Oya for President (to be read OutLoud) (Poem)

   -Alexis Pauline Gumbs

5. Mourning in America: A Black Woman’s Blues Song (Poem)

   -Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Ph.D.

UNIT I: FEMINISM: THE RADICAL NOTION THAT WOMEN ARE PEOPLE (TOO)

The Statute of Liberty, March 7, 2017

I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change.
I am changing the things I cannot accept. ~ Angela Davis

I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that. I am the candidate of the people of America. ~ Shirley Chisholm

Articles

Liz Adetiba, July 1, 2016. Hillary Clinton’s Complex Embodiment of Shirley Chisholm’s Legacy, TheHuffingtonPost.com Inc.

Rebecca Bohanan, July 25, 2016. 12 Women Ran for President Before Hillary, Huffington Post.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, June, 2014.  The Case for Reparations, The Atlantic. 

Michele Gorman, August 5, 2016. Female U.S Presidential Contenders Before Hillary Clinton 2016, Newsweek.

Steven Hill, March 7, 2014. Why Does the US Still Have So Few Women in Power?, The Nation.

Ejaz Khan. Ten Most Famous Women Political Leaders, Wonderlist.

Jill Lepore, June 27, 2016. The Woman Card: How feminism and antifeminism created Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, The New Yorker.

Garance Franke-Ruta, April 8, 2013. How the ‘System of Beauty’ Hurts Female Politicians, The Atlantic.

Julia Manchester, June 10, 2016. Hillary Clinton’s female forerunners, CNN Politics.

Lois Romano, July 24, 2016. Before Clinton, these women blazed the long, frustrating trail, The Washington Post.

Lily Rothman, April 27, 2016. How A Major US Party First Nominated a Woman for Vice President, Time.

Rebecca Traister, February 22, 2016. The Single American Woman, New York Magazine.

Bernard Weinraub, July 12, 2984. Geraldine Ferraro is Chosen by Mondale as Running Mate, First Women on Major Ticket, The New York Times.

Books

Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed (Houghton Mifflin, 1970).

Ellen Fitzpatrick, The Highest Glass Ceiling: Women’s Quest for Presidency (Harvard University Press, 2016).

Lori D. Ginzberg, Women and the Work of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in the Nineteenth-century United States (Yale University Press, 1990).

Torben Iversen and Frances Rosenbluth, Women, Work, and Politics: The Political Economy of Gender Inequality (Yale University Press, 2011).

Women, Culture and Society: A Reader, edited by Michelle Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford University Press, 1974).

Movie

MAKERS: Women in Politics, Directed by Grace Lee, (Verizon, 2015)

Websites

Global Fund for Women: Champions for Equality. Women’s Human Rights.

MSNBC, June 6, 2016. Before Hillary: Female Political Trailblazers.

PeaceCorps. Global Issues: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.

The Hillary Clinton Campaign. Women’s Rights and Opportunity.

The National Democratic Institute. Gender, Women, and Democracy.

The White House: Office of Press Secretary. Fact Sheet: Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.

UN Women. Facts and Figures: Leadership and Political Participation.

UNIT II: THE PERSONAL IS (ALWAYS) POLITICAL

(NEGOTIATING MISOGYNY & SEXISM)

 When they go low, we go high. ~ Michelle Obama

Articles

Amy Chozick and Ashley Parker, April 28, 2016. Donald Trump’s Gender-Based Attacks on Hillary Clinton have Calculated Risk, The New York Times.

Kelly Wilz, February 4, 2016. A Feminist’s Guide to Critiquing Hillary Clinton, Academe Blog.

Michelle Cottle, August 17, 2016. The Era of ‘The Bitch’ Is Coming, The Atlantic.

Rebekah Tromble and Dirk Hovy, February 24, 2016. These 6 Charts Show How Much Sexism Hillary Clinton Faces On Twitter, The Washington Post.

Books

Carl Berstein, A Woman in Charge (Knopf Borzoi Books, 2007).

Deborah Ohrn, Herstory: Women Who Changed the World (Viking Juvenile, 1995).

Gloria Steinem, Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundaries of Gender (Open Road Media, 1995).

Movie

Miss Representation. Directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, (Girls’ Club Entertainment, 2011).

Websites

Amanda Marcotte, October 20, 2016. Hillary Clinton is an actual Feminist: She Met Trump’s Misogyny Head On, Without Apology, Salon.

Andrew O’Hehir, February 13, 2016. Hillary, Bernie, Women and Men: Hey, Guys – Gender Politics Are Central to This Race, Not a Footnote, Salon.

Charlotte Alter, June 6, 2016. Sexist Hillary Clinton Attacks Are Best Sellers, Time.

UNIT III: ESTABLISHING THE new JIM AND JANE CROW

As a society, our decision to heap shame and contempt upon those who struggle and fail in a system designed to keep them locked up and locked out say far more about ourselves than it does about them. ~ Michelle Alexander

Articles

Rachel Herzing. What is the Prison Industrial Complex?, Political Research Associates, n.d.

Angela Davis. Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex, History is a Weapon, n.d.

Vicky Pelaez, August 28, 2016. The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery, Global Research.

Aviva Shen, March 6, 2016. Hillary Clinton Says She Agrees Her Role in Mass Incarceration was a Mistake, ThinkProgress.

Eric Schlosser, December, 1998. The Prison-Industrial Complex, The Atlantic.

Movie

Cracking The Codes: The System of Racial Inequity, Directed by Shakti Butler, (World Trust, 2013).

Opinion Editorial

BBC News, July 16, 2015. Bill Clinton Regrets ‘Three Strikes’ Bill.

Videos

Will Cabaniss, August 25, 2015. Black Lives Matter Activist Says ‘the Clintons’ Passed Policy That Led to Mass Incarceration, Politifact.

Meghan Keneally, April 11, 2016. What’s Inside the Controversial 1994 Crime Bill That’s Plaguing Hillary Clinton on the Campaign Trail, ABC News Network.

UNIT IV: ON NAVIGATING A WORLD WHERE #BLACKLIVESMATTER

One ever feels his twoness – an American a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two reconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. ~ W. E. B. Du Bois

Articles

Yamiche Alcindor, August 1, 2016. Black Lives Matter Coalition Makes Demand as Campaign Heats Up, The New York Times.

Michael Eric Dyson, November 29, 2015. A Skeptic’s Journey: Why Hillary Clinton will do more for black people than Obama, The New Republic .

JD Heyes, September 9, 2016. Total Stupidity: Black Lives Matter Clams that Climate Change is Racist, Newstarget.

S.A. Miller, September 27, 2016. Black Lives Matter Agrees with Clinton’s ‘implicit Racism’ Message but Doesn’t Trust Her, The Washington Times.

Bre Payton, August 4, 2016. Black Lives Matter Founder: ‘Clintons Use Black People For Votes, The Federalist.

Alex Pfeiffer, October 15, 2016. Leaked Transcript Shows Hillary And Black Lives Matter Activists Clashed In Private Meeting, The Daily Caller.

Book

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (Haymarket, 2016).

Opinion Editorials

Glenn Beck, September 7, 2016. Empathy for Black Lives Matter,” The New York Times.

Erin Aubry Kaplan, August 7, 2016, In the Black Lives Matter Era, We Need Justice Well Beyond the Legal Sense, Los Angeles Times.

Karsonya Wise Whitehead, February 22, 2013. Can #BlackLivesMatter last?, The Baltimore Sun.

Movie

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, Directed by Shola Lynch, (Lionsgate, 2012).

Video Clips

Journeyman Pictures, April 12, 2016. #BlackLivesMatter – A New Generation of Civil Rights Activists is Emerging From the Violence of the USA.

RBC Network, July 26, 2016. Mothers of the Movement – Black Lives Matter Speech at the Democratic National Convention. 

Websites

Reuters Adam Bettcher, August 1, 2016. Black Lives Matter Group Releases Agenda Ahead of Presidential Election, CBS News.

Yamich Alcindor, August 1, 2016. Black Lives Matter Coalition Makes Demands as Campaign Heats Up, The New York Times.

Nia-Malika Henderson, August 19, 2015. How Black Lives Matter Activists are Influencing 2016 Race, CNN Politics.